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Alcarious Crowngarde
Background Childhood in Lordaeron Born in Lordaeron to Arthur and Chelsey Crowngarde, two retired paladins, Alcarious was the younger of two siblings; the older being Valcor Crowngarde. Both children were heavily influenced by their parents and were set on the arduous path of becoming paladins themselves, but their parents would never see Alcarious progress beyond squire. While Valcor became a knighted Paladin five years before Alcarious, Lordaeron would come under great turmoil before he saw his knighting. The Legion and it's mighty Scourge invaded the human Kingdom, which was already recovering from it's war with the Horde, and easily swept over them. The Crowngarde homestead was not spared, though neither of their bodies were recovered, both Arthur and Chelsey Crowngarde were presumed dead, especially as the last two to see them was their two sons, who gave account that they held off attackers so they could flee in secret. The Scarlet Crusade The two brothers found refuge with the Scarlet Crusade, who had knowledge of their parents and respected their lineage. Alcarious would serve as Valcor's squire for a year before he was knighted by Grand Crusader Saidan Dathrodan(At the time possessed by the Dreadlord Balnazzar). The two brothers would not stay in the Crusade much longer, however, as on the field their Knight-Lieutenant demanded the slaughter of a caravan of blood elves, a rogue contingency that had not followed Kael'thas, claiming that their eyes were sign of Legion taint and they could not be trusted. The two brothers, given great doubts by the murder of women and children, held back while their bretheren zealously charged the elves and deserted the Crusade. Disillusioned with the Crusade, the two set out to travel to Stormwind and join the Alliance. Journey to Stormwind The journey to Stormwind was treacherous, Valcor would lead his younger brother through the Arathi Highlands where they would pick up a surviving high elf who had the same destination in mind, his name Lathoril Highwind. The trio saved a small human village from an ogre attack by marshalling the villagers and training a militia, before leading a counterattack against the approaching ogre warband. After heading further south and travelling through the Wetlands, the trio would battle a group of Dragonmaw bandits on the road, rescuing a dwarf blacksmith named Farengard Stoneworth, who subsequently joined them on their journey. While travelling through Dun Morogh, the group of four would clash with a party of frost trolls, a skirmish which Alcarious lead as Valcor had been cursed by one of the enemies' shaman. Farengard would direct the group into Ironforge, where they could take the Deeprun Tram to Stormwind City. While his initial intention was to stop at Ironforge, Farengard was persuaded to journey with the trio to Stormwind and join the Alliance with them. Joining the Alliance Military Upon arrival at Stormwind, the group was nothing short of strangers to the locals, but they were easily accepted into the military after they gave their story. They would serve for years without issue, they were not called to fight in the Outlands, instead garrisoned within Stormwind. Valcor and Alcarious were seperated from Farengard and Lathoril for a time, as they were serving with the Church of the Holy Light while Farengard crafted arms, armor, and served as a guard, with Lathoril acting as his enchanter. It was here that Alcarious met Juliana Wesley, another paladin that he would enter a relationship with. During their years of service, the two would eventually marry and have two children: Tarathar and Delia Crowngarde. During the coming Northrend War, these two children would be trained and raised by the Church of the Light. The Northrend War The Borean Campaign The two brothers would see action in the Northrend War, but they would be seperated. Alcarious was dispatched to the Borean Tundra while Valcor was sent to the Howling Fjord. Alcarious served at Valiance Keep and, as a Knight-Lieutenant himself, leading a platoon of soldiers. Him and his men were important participants in Operation Webweaver, where his was one of the three platoons that pushed the field beyond Valiance Keep to clear it of Nerubians. His men were instrumental in the battle of En'kilah, his platoon was the one that first broke the siege lines to charge into the city and engage the scourge forces. After En'kilah was secured, the Borean Tundra was clear of Scourge forces and considered secure despite the presence of the blue dragons. The Argent Crusade Alcarious requested association with the Argent Crusade with his commanders and it was granted quickly, the Crusade respected his service rank and his experience as a paladin, being named Knight-Captain upon entry and given a squad of paladins to command. His squad included Juliana Crowngarde and Dural Corebrand, who would become close friends of his. It was early in his service with the Crusade that he experienced tragedy, however, as he received news from the Alliance that Valcor and an Alliance expedition into Zul'drak had gone missing and were considered K.I.A. after unidentifiable remains of Alliance soldiers were found by nearby Argent Crusaders at Light's Breach. Quel'delar He had little time to mourn for his brother, though, as Alcarious was assigned to aid the Silver Covenant in restoring Quel'delar and seeing it used in the campaign. Alcarious helped purify the blade and was in turn granted it by the Argent Crusade and the Silver Covenant, a few choice members of his squad helped him in this endeavor, and he would use the blade for the rest of the Northrend War. Argent Tournament Being assigned as gamemaster, Alcarious was in charge of overseeing who signed up for the Tournament and ensuring the validity of proclaimed knights. It was here that he met fellow crusader, Lucas Valonforth, the two struck up an easy friendship built by a friendly rivalry, the two often sparred and jousted, often with no clear victor. Watchers said that while one occasionally unhorsed the other, it was often that the two simply broke their lances on the other's shields until they gave up the joust. It was here that Alcarious learned about the Valonforth family and it's steep past in the Paladin ways, Alcarious would share his own story, the two would be close friends for the couple months that they remained at the Tournament, until they finally parted ways at the Tournaments end. Argent Vanguard After the Valley of Echoes was secured by Highlord Tirion and his forces, Knight-Captain Alcarious was assigned to take command of Argent Vanguard and head the offensive against Scourgeholme. To his horror, Alcarious discovered that the Scourgeholme garrison had been taken over by a Scourge death knight, his own older brother, Scourgelord Valcor. The vestiges of his older brother were all but gone as he taunted Alcarious and his grief, and the two's armies met just within Scourgeholme. Dural Corebrand, one of Alcarious' sergeants, met his end by Valcor's own blade before the two brothers clashed themself. Their fighting was said to be the centerpiece of the two armies, even with Quel'delar in his hand the two were evenly matched, but the Crusaders began to push back the armies of the Scourge. Valcor, who quickly realized he would be surrounded and killed by the winning paladins, retreated on the back of a frost wyrm. This was the last time during the Northrend War that Alcarious would meet Valcor in battle. Icecrown Offensive For both his capture and destruction of Scourgeholm and his squad's role in The Horror Gate, Alcarious saw a promotion to Knight-Commander just in time for the Icecrown Offensive. Alcarious and Juliana both were among the several dozen man force that penetrated Icecrown to the very peak and did battle with the Lich King, Arthas. Both of them nearly met their death along with the dozens of other heroes, but they were saved at the last moment by Tirion Fordring. Immediately after the war's end, Alcarious donated Quel'delar to the Silver Covenant, who put it up in Dalaran's museum, where it was heavily protected and even had Alcarious' name engraved in a plaque describing his exploits while using the blade. Aftermath of the War Alcarious saw promotion to Knight-Lord and was assigned to the Eastern Plaguelands to construct several sentry towers throughout the Plaguelands to work towards securing the region. During this construction, Alcarious and Juliana Crowngarde took over the remainder of their son's training, Alcarious was the one to personally knight Tarathar and induct him into the Argent Crusade, while Juliana would knight Delia two years later. The Cataclysm A New Blade Before he would make for the Eastern Plaguelands, he and his wife would return to Stormwind to reunite with their children and Alcarious' old friends. Alcarious came to Farengard and Lathoril with a mission: to forge himself a new blade, one that could fill the void left by as grand a blade as Quel'delar. While they could not create a work as legendary as the spellblade, the three of them could create something with the potential to become so legendary. First, the blade would be forged of Titansteel, a magnificent material that was impossible to break through physical means, and could only be bent by the greatest of smith's with a titansteel hammer. This was the most difficult part of the blade's forging, as Alcarious chose to quest for the necessary materials rather than drain his coffers for it. However, after a month of favors and exploring through Northrend, he was able to convince the Sons of Hodir to lend him the needed hammer and grant him the titansteel. With the hammer and material, Farengard was able to forge the blade, an amazing greatsword that on it's own would shimmer in the sunlight and bring pause to it's foes, but the creation was not yet done. The final stages of the blade's creation was it's blessing, Alcarious was determined that it would serve as a tool of the light and never anything different, he requested the aid of the Church of the Light. With his reputation and a few gracious donations, the Church agreed to help hallow the blade and imbue it with the Light as Alcarious wished. Three dozen men and women, priests, paladins, and Alcarious himself, all gathered to bestow the blade with holy energy. They gently encompassed the blade with a light so strong that if it's aura had been any less gentle, they'd have been forced to look away, and after a grueling hour of upholding this purification the blade was so strongly imbued with the Light that it could be felt by all within the room. From the beginning, Alcarious had intended to create a new holy blade that could fit in the annals of the divines, similar to Ashbringer and Quel'delar, and many would agree in saying he had. The resulting blade was simple in design, it's shape resembling that of an average claymore, while what set it apart was it's shimmering aura of holy and the shining material with which it was built. Alcarious had a secret motive in the forging of this blade, though, as he knew that his brother, the former Scourgelord of Scourgeholme, still walked Azeroth and could only have something nefarious in mind. He knew that if Quel'delar was not enough to break their even fight, he would need a truly powerful blade to do so. Finally done with it's forging, Alcarious christened the blade Valonforth, after the family name of his friend from the Argent Crusade. Eastern Plaguelands and Conflict with Derek Valonforth Ironically, the Knight-Lord would find conflict with one of that family, as his forces and him were forced to defend their under-construction towers from the attacking Scourge forces spurred by Derek Valonforth. These forces were repelled and the five towers successfully constructed, but Derek Valonforth and many of his forces continued to wage war throughout the rest of Lordaeron and even against these towers. It was during this time that his wife and two children would serve under his command in battle, he'd appointed Juliana as Knight-Captain and given her command of a squad of paladins, including Knight Tarathar and Knight Delia, their two children. They thankfully managed to avoid a tragedy during the campaign against Derek. Mists of Pandaria Valcor Resurfaces Early in the Pandaria Conflict, Alcarious received word that an unknown, powerful Death Knight independent from the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Scourge had a small force of undead and had taken control of Deatholme within the Ghostlands. Confident that it was his older brother, Alcarious left Juliana in command of the five towers alone (their children had joined the Alliance Military for the conflict), taking a platoon of Paladins on an expedition to root out this new threat. Valcor was indeed behind the new rise of undead in the Ghostlands, having attacked several blood elven caravans and small forces, having intended to conquer Quel'thalas for the Scourge. With the aid of the Silvermoon Blood Knights, Alcarious led the offensive against the citadel and their forces successfully began to push out their forces. It was like events were replaying from years earlier, but this time the fight between Valcor and Alcarious would be much different. Much to Alcarious' surprise, Valcor had a new blade as well, he had somehow had what looked like a runeblade forged, he could feel the unholy energy radiating from the steel in his brother's hands. He assumed that he would once more match against his older brother, and for a short time that was the case, their battle a massive clash of light and unholy that held the attacking paladins in awe. However, Valcor began to overpower Alcarious, as the former had no changes in age and was unaffected by old wounds, while Alcarious was not as fast or as strong as he had been before. While with his blade he managed to hold his own, Valcor gave Alcarious a wound, immediately spurring his allies to charge forward and interrupt the fight, forcing a begrudging Valcor to retreat once again. Alcarious' suffered a somewhat deep cut over the left side of his face, which while normally might not have been so dire, the cut came from a wound so corrupted and plagued it would have certainly killed the man if he had not been immediately tended to by his contingency of paladins. Deatholme had been cleared, but he returned to the Eastern Plaguelands without the feeling of victory: he had failed to kill his brother, and a dangerous, Scourge-loyal Death Knight continued to roam Azeroth. He had failed. Modern Alcarious continues to head the effort to purify the Eastern Plaguelands from Crown Guard Tower, but is still dealing with a constant barrage of undead skirmishes and recently has even had to contend with the Forsaken, who have seized The Marrus Stead to the west of his tower and are treating the Crusade with hostility. With the reformation of the Order of the Silver Hand, the Argent Crusade's numbers have fallen somewhat, the order remains in great influence in the Western and Eastern Plaguelands and a few holdings in Northrend, but it's volunteer rates have fallen drastically as new aspiring Paladins instead go to the reformed Silver Hand. He is consistently haunted by thoughts of his brother, who he knows is not aging alongside him and will only grow stronger than him as the years pass. His only hope lies in his son, who he believes has the potential to surpass his own ability, as he laments the fact that he was in truth knighted by the fraudulent and corrupt Scarlet Crusade, he has never felt worthy of the renown he carries. Alcarious is struggling on a new front to deal with the rising amounts of Scourge attacks and the new threat of Forsaken aggression to the west, with the help of his wife. He recently declined the offer to be made Grand Crusader and leader of the remaining Argent Crusade, gruffly assured of the fact that he was not worthy of such a position so long as his older brother remained at large.